Eating peanuts during a meal may help ward off cardiovascular diseases that can lead to heart attacks or stroke, according to a Penn State study released on Wednesday.

Consuming peanuts "blunted" the spike of lipids in subjects' bloodstream. This spike increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death in the US and around the world.

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"Typically, whenever we eat something, it causes the arteries to get a little bit stiffer during the post-meal period, but we have shown that if you eat peanuts with your meal, this can help prevent the stiffening response," said Penn State Professor of Nutrition Penny Kris-Etherton. "When the stiffening response happens in the cells that line the arteries, resulting in decreased elasticity in the arteries, it can limit the availability of nitric oxide, and when there's less nitric oxide, the arteries don't dilate that much."

The medical trial monitored 15 healthy overweight and obese men who were fed control meals "in liquid form" with ground, unsalted peanuts." A control group was fed the same meal without peanuts.

According to researchers, there was a 32 percent reduction of triglyceride levels in the subjects who ate peanuts compared to the control group.

Further studies are needed to investigate the findings, and researchers say that women will be included in future research.